Babton a



(No Model.)

B A. BALLOU.

MANUFACTURE OF SAFETY PINS. No, 380,380. PatentedApr. 3, 1888.

WITNESSES. I INVENTEIR- u. PEfEnS. Web-Ulmgnpher, wm em m;

UNITED STATES PATENT @rricn.

BARTON A. BALLOU, OF PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND.

MANUFACTURE OF S'AFETY-PlNS.

EPECIFICA'IEON forming part of Letters Patent No. 380,380, dated April 3, 1888.

Application filed January 9, 1888.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, BARTON A. BALLOU, of the city and county of Providence, in the State of Rhode' Island, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in the Process of Manufacturing Safety-Pins; and I declare the following to be a specification thereof, reference being bad to the accompanying drawings.

Like letters indicate like parts.

Figure 1 shows the blank from which the safetypin is made. Figs. 2, 3, and 4 represent the result of the first three operations,respectively. Fig. 5 shows, partly in longitudinal section and partly in side elevation, the completed safety-pin which is the product of my improved process. Fig. 6 is a side elevation of said pin, and Fig. 7 is a transverse section of the same on the line w m of Fig. 6.

My invention relates to that class. of pins commonly called safety-pins, in which the pinpoint is protected by the catch receiving it; and it consists of a series of operations, as hereinafter specified, by which the wire blank is formed with a central broad body and one end of the wire is swaged to form a pin-catch, and the other end is reduced, elongated, tempered, and pointed by compressing-dies to form a pintongue, after which said ends are bent so as to engage with each other.

In the practice of my invention I take a wire blank, as shown in Fig.1, and by a die and plunger flatten or concave the central portion and impress upon it any desired ornamentation. The result of this operation is illustrated in Fig. 2, which shows a concaveeonvex body, a, with two ends, b 0, left, as before, of cylindrical wire, the end (2 being the longer. The end 0 is then reduced and elongated by compression in any suitable machine, for which purpose I use the needle swaging ma- Serinl No. 260.229. (No model.)

chine described in Letters Patent of the United States No. 268,874. By this machine the wire end a is subjected to the process known as cold-swaging," whereby it is lengthened out and tempered to form the pin-tongue. The result of this operation is shown in Fig. 3. The tip of the tongue is subjected to the same operation, but with dies adapted to form a sharp point, as seen in Fig. 4. The end I) of Fig. 3 is swaged into alongitudinal grooved form, as seen at d in Fig. 4. The ends are then bent symmetrically, as shown in Figs. 5 and 6. The point of the pin-tongue is then capable of engagement with the catch d.

It has been common hitherto to form the tongues of broad-backed safety-pins by hammering, but such process has a tendency to make the pin-tongue brittle. By eold'swaging the pin-tongue, as above described, it is not only shaped and pointed, but receives that hardness and temper which are necessary without wasting the material, as when the stock is filed, or destroying the fiber of the metal, as when the stock is hammered.

I claim as a novel and useful invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent- The improved process of manufacturing safety-pins herein described, consisting in forming the central portion of the wire blank into a body portion, a, by a die and plunger, swaging one end of the wire to give it a longi tudinal groove, reducing, elongating, tempering, and pointing the opposite end of the wire by cold-swaging by suitable dies,and bending the ends so as to make them cngagable with each other, substantially as specified.

BARTON A. BALLOU.

\Vitnesses:

WARREN R. PERCE, WALTER 0. SMITH. 

